criterionforum.org

Posted: **Mon May 20, 2019 5:13 pm**

The Young Ahmed seems to be quite divisive. On Twitter, some complain about cultural appropriation and stereotyping, while others praise its even-handedness and lack of sentimentality. Reviews have been published by Little White Lies, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Screen International, IndieWire, and Variety.

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2019 1:59 am**

First review of Ira Sachs's Frankie which Ehrlich gave a B to, but closes with saying he was still expecting more of it.

Variety's Owen Gleiberman sounds even more critical though he enjoyed the film as well.

THR also liked it and also found it lacking greater impact.

Not seen any European reviews yet.

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2019 6:24 pm**

Dowd grades for The Young Ahmed (B-), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (A-) and The Lighthouse (B+)

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2019 6:30 pm**

Early reactions to the new Tarantino:

#OnceUponATimeInHollywood: Quentin Tarantino wants to tell us a story about Hollywood life at the time of the Manson Family slayings of ’69, and man, does he ever, going from awestruck to WTF. Brad Pitt the standout, his coolest role yet. #Cannes2019 pic.twitter.com/WgJywDPW9i

— Peter Howell (@peterhowellfilm) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: QT’s latest has some of the best sequences of his career, but also some of the draggiest. A scrambling, ambitious, maddening, beautiful film. Brad Pitt steals the show. DiCaprio, as always, fantastic. #Cannes2019

— Jordan Ruimy @ Cannes (@mrRuimy) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: Tarantino wasn’t joking when he said this was the closest to PULP FICTION that he has come. He juggles a mosaic of characters and story-lines in this one, eventually stringing them together for a relentlessly playful and touching finale. #Cannes2019

— Jordan Ruimy @ Cannes (@mrRuimy) May 21, 2019

I reeeeally liked ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD #Cannes2019

— Emma Stefansky (@stefabsky) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD – Historically dubious, thematically brilliant, QT finds his form in film that could win Palme d’Or or be picketed by audiences, or maybe both. Thrilling, provocative, blackly comical, intensely unsettling masterwork. #cannes2019

— Jason Gorber – at #Cannes2019 (@filmfest_ca) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD is absurdly baggy and often careless in its treatment of people who deserve better. But individual scenes zing like nobody’s business and the ambience is delicious. A significant improvement on HATEFUL EIGHT. #cannes2019 #OnceUponATimeinHollywood

— Donald Clarke📽 (@DonaldClarke63) May 21, 2019

Quentin Tarantino’s brilliant exploitation black-comedy Once Upon A Time In Hollywood finds a pulp-fictionally redemptive take on the Manson nightmare: shocking, gripping, dazzlingly shot in the celluloid-primary colours of sky blue and sunset gold. Review later #Cannes2019

— Peter Bradshaw (@PeterBradshaw1) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: Like a lot of recent Tarantino, this is baggy, self-indulgent, fascinatingly its own thing and ambitiously conceived. Of course it’s accomplished, sometimes dazzlingly so, but it ends up being as hit-or-miss as his last few. #Cannes2019

— Tim Grierson (@TimGrierson) May 21, 2019

To be completely honest I’m not yet sure what to make of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Need to let this one marinate, don’t have an instant reaction. Most of the film is pretty good, I’m having fun watching them play around in late 60s Hollywood. Then the finale is HOLY FUCK.

— Alex Billington @ Cannes (@firstshowing) May 21, 2019

#PremiereReview once upon a time in Hollywood: the most enjoyable and cerebral Tarantino for some time Brad Pitt steals show as stuntman. Might need some tightening up in the February sequence in the edit before release but the August pay off is huge pic.twitter.com/yRUV6XPmjq

— Kaleem Aftab (@aftabamon) May 21, 2019

I laughed. I gasped. I wondered: What would Roman Polanski think? I begrudgingly agreed not to tweet out spoilers. Tarantino delivers an ode to Hollywood’s lost innocence, while cheekily suggesting it never had any to begin with. #OnceUponATimeinHollywood #Cannes2019 pic.twitter.com/DBgriD2Ihb

— Chris Knight (@ChrisKnightfilm) May 21, 2019

Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is so gloriously, wickedly indulgent, compelling and hilarious. The film QT was born to make. The world is a more colourful place in Quentin Tarantino’s twilight zone. Round two, please. #Cannes2019

— Joe Utichi (@joeutichi) May 21, 2019

There will be many, many hot takes to come on the new Tarantino but I don’t mind letting mine cool off on the counter a little longer. I know it’s more relaxed than I was expecting, and that DiCaprio is terrific, funny and poignant. The rest, I’m gonna mull over. #Cannes2019

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD is more languorous and luminous than anything Tarantino has done before. Radiant w/ affection for Los Angeles and the movies. Ambles and drags but pleasantly so. Pitt & DiCaprio are fabulous, Pitt especially. I could watch them drive around LA a lot.

— Jake Coyle (@jakecoyleAP) May 21, 2019

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2019 10:33 pm**

Raves upon raves for Bong Joon-ho's Parasite.

Reviews from The Telegraph, Screen International, Variety, IndieWire.

Karem Han wrote:PARASITE is the only press screening at #Cannes2019 where the audience burst into applause not once but TWICE and then again at the credits

FilmLandEmpire wrote:fabulously ferocious upstairs/downstairs satire that offers a searing commentary on social inequality while giving us so. much. Cinema! Some unexpected emotional beats too. A triumph that elicited the biggest reaction of any press screenings this year

Ella Kemp wrote:Check back in after this adrenaline-headache has calmed down but, well, PARASITE: I screeched, gasped, stopped blinking for about 15 minutes and whooped so passionately. Bong Joon-Ho is absolutely regal, BOW DOWN BONG HIVE

Alex Billington wrote:Bong Joon-ho reigns!!!!!!!!!!!!! Parasite is AMAZING! Love love love this film. A complete and total knockout.

David Ehrlich wrote:PARASITE might be Bong Joon-ho’s best movie. it bundles up all his previous work into one angry, grounded, hilarious, and painfully bittersweet story about the horrors of co-existence in capitalism.

Jake Coyle wrote:Bong Joon-ho's 'Us' only better? An unforgettable class satire and one of the best of #Cannes2019. A director working at the absolute top of his game. His command here is scary good.

Luke Hicks wrote:what they say is true. bong joon-ho's PARASITE is a perfect movie. laugh-out-loud funny, an astute blend of humanity & absurdity, thrilling til its final depraved moments, a modern architectural feast for the eyes, a razor-sharp socio-economic critique, etc

Peter Howell wrote:A family of grifters connive to blend their lives with an unsuspecting rich family's in Bong Joon Ho's social satire that becomes a savage underclass morality lesson. Think of the home invasion tales of Michael Haneke and Jordan Peele, for starters.

Jason Gorber wrote:Bong Joon-Ho's symphony of sociopathy is no con, a brilliant family drama/social drama/grifters tale with highs if humour and depths of deadly despair. Just stunning, a fantastic, beautifully realized film that earns every turn it takes.

Stephen Miller wrote:With PARASITE, Bong Joon Ho takes all of the themes of SNOWPIERCER and melds them into a wickedly dark comedy. Fantastic film.

A.A. Dowd wrote:Mostly loved Bong Joon-ho's PARASITE, an insane, ingenious farce about desperate times calling for some very desperate measures. Bong being Bong, the tone veers wildly, but always in service of the class politics.

Only Tim Grierson is less enthusiastic:

Bong's best since THE HOST, although the new film doesn't as deftly switch from genre to genre. Still, it's a sharp/sad tale about family and class, with enough foreboding underneath to make it hard to know who to root for.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 1:01 am**

Nice to see another enthusiastically reviewed film from South Korea after Burning from last year. Between the Bong, the Eggers, the Sciamma, the Hausner and the Bonello, Cannes 2019 looks like a very strong year, and we're only just over halfway through. Still, don't put it beyond the Jury to make at least two or three head-scratching decisions, say, like giving Ken Loach or Terry Malick a Palme D'Or for directing instead of Sciamma whose film has been better received than either.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 2:31 am**

Honestly, there really hasn't been an outright bomb this festival, and this seems to hold weight across polls. The closest seems to be The Dead Don't Die.

Loach and Malick are acceptable Palme choices but severely uninspired. Even with six films left to screen, the jury would make a lot of people happy if they just gave it to Sciamma. I'm rooting for her even if I have more invested in Suleiman and Malick. It also seems clear that they should have (if Focus allowed for it) had Jarmusch open OOC to make room for the Eggers. Or place Sachs, more of a French-revered director with the backing of a good producer, in UCR. It reminds me of The Florida Project a few years ago.

Like many, I'm not a fan of Tarantino, but recognize his talent (at directing at least), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood looks fantastic, if Tarantino does indeed land on a sort of pathos.

Amongst Competition titles, I'd think it's safe to say these are the four most-praised titles:

Pain and Glory
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite

To screen: Dolan, Desplechin, Kechiche, Bellochio, Suleiman, Triet

U.S. Distribution
Focus: The Dead Don't Die
Fox Searchlight: A Hidden Life
Columbia: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Neon: Parasite / A Portrait of a Girl on Fire
SPC: Pain and Glory / Frankie
Amazon: Les Miserables

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 6:54 am**

A Hidden Life was picked up by Fox Searchlight ^

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 7:53 am**

Fingers crossed it's Sciamma. A really wonderful director who could do with the exposure and, hey, maybe it wouldn't hurt for Cannes to actually reward a female filmmaker for once in a blue moon.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 9:38 am**

furbicide wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 7:53 am Fingers crossed it's Sciamma. A really wonderful director who could do with the exposure and, hey, maybe it wouldn't hurt for Cannes to actually reward a female filmmaker for once in a blue moon.

If it is great, then I'm all for it (and I liked her two prior films) but I never liked this outlook, nor the 50/50. I'm obviously for as many female and minority filmmakers, but I don't like how such a thing needs to be enforced. I think a film should play in competition (and win the Palme) only if it's worthy, not because who made it or wether he deserves it. Obviously Cannes being what it is we do get awful and undeserving films sneaking in, and sometimes lesser films winning. I'd want Sciamma winning because it is worthy (and so far it sounds so), not because she's a woman. (Case in point Almodovar, who people are deeming due for a Palme)

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 1:16 pm**

I agree but, as you mentioned, by all accounts it's worthy. It's time; it's getting about the same praise as Almodovar, and he's no more due than Jarmusch or Desplechin. Tarkovsky and Bresson never won the Palme despite competing, and Almodovar is not them. Almodovar has a narrative but, as I'm sure he's first to admit, he'll be perfectly fine.

Cannes juries make a lot of silly decisions, but they do usually seem to try and make sure that the Palme isn't a disaster.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I looked at all the females in competition since 1994. Early on, there was zero-to-one in Competition and then it usually capped at about two or three. Lucrecia Martel should have won it at least once. In the past three years, there have been at least one female-directed film to receive massive acclaim---Toni Erdmann, You Were Never Really Here, and Lazzaro Felice. The latter two had to settle on Screenplay and, for Ramsay, Actor while Maren Ade was shut out despite some of the most effusive praise this decade.

Sciamma winning sounds worthy.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 2:03 pm**

Obviously Cannes makes horrid choices. While Paterson was my favorite of the year, I would have loved for Toni Erdmann to win as well, and would have never given it to Daniel Blake or The Square or Dheepan (forgot which one won, but I don't care about all three)and while I enjoyed Never Really Here it isn't Palme material for me.
I've always wondered how much say does the jury president have? Can he just choose the Palme for his liking for example?

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 2:07 pm**

Neon/Hulu picked up the Sciamma.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 2:33 pm**

dda1996a wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 2:03 pm Obviously Cannes makes horrid choices. While Paterson was my favorite of the year, I would have loved for Toni Erdmann to win as well, and would have never given it to Daniel Blake or The Square or Dheepan (forgot which one won, but I don't care about all three)and while I enjoyed Never Really Here it isn't Palme material for me.
I've always wondered how much say does the jury president have? Can he just choose the Palme for his liking for example?

I'm talking in terms of critical reception, not your personal opinion. Dheepan and I, Daniel Blake received respectable reviews and The Square received good reviews---a horrid choice would be The Sea of Trees or Marguerite and Julien (2015), The Last Face or It's Only the End of the World (2016), Rodin or Jupiter's Moon (2017).

Good for NEON! They have the best haul of the festival; hopefully they can make up for Vox Lux and The Beach Bum.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 3:53 pm**

To set the records straight I don't hate any of the recent winners, just don't very like them. (The last winner other than Shoplifters j found actually good was Blue is the Warmest...) Was there ever a film that was actively hated that won? I can only think of Under the Sun of Satan (I don't want what was the critical reception to Wild at Heart; I like it personally)

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 3:53 pm**

I didn’t realize Marguerite et Julien was so hated— I quite enjoyed it, though I can see why critics would have their knives out for it. But Sea of Trees-level derision?

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 4:14 pm**

You're right---I think I just threw that one in based on its ScreenDaily score, which isn't the be-all, end-all. Both it and Trees received under a one, but I think other polls had it slightly higher. The Sea of Trees was definitely the flop of 2015, with the Donzelli, Franco, Nicloux, and Kurzel in the next tier.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 4:17 pm**

The Dolan is getting surprisingly good notices on Twitter from what I can see - apparently familiar territory for him with a similar tone to Mommy, but I'll take that any day of the week

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 4:25 pm**

Another Chinese film in hot water—Summer of Changsha was supposedly withdrawn from the festival per the film's official Weibo account, but the festival says the premiere is still happening today... without anyone from the film's cast or crew, who canceled their flights at the last minute "to avoid trouble with the Chinese authorities." (The producer was already in the air when the decision was made and will be skipping the screening.) My best guess is that the film ran into permit issues like One Second and Better Days at Berlin, but rather than pulling the film outright a "compromise" was reached where the premiere will go ahead, but the cast and crew will stay away to give it the appearance of an "unauthorized" screening. Sounds bizarre, but this is roughly what happened in 1994 when Zhang Yimou skipped the premiere of To Live (though in that case the lead actors still attended).

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 7:39 pm**

THR, IndieWire ("flat procedural"), and Screen International ("From around its midpoint, this uneven film becomes a riveting, compassionate interrogation drama") on the Desplechin. English and Spanish Twitter reactions (of which there aren't many yet; I don't mention the French ones because my grasp of the language is tenuous at best) seem split between the respectful and the lukewarm.

Posted: **Wed May 22, 2019 8:53 pm**

Which is pretty usual for a Deaplechin film, no?

Posted: **Thu May 23, 2019 6:07 pm**

According to the official site, the Kechiche is 3:22 and not 4hrs

Posted: **Thu May 23, 2019 6:20 pm**

The Bellocchio is getting some serious love in Italian-, Spanish- and (as far as I could comprehend them) French-language tweets. At least two say Scorsese would envy the director's work in it. The lead actor is being highly praised. Strangely enough, I can't find many English comments.

Variety, IndieWire, THR, ScreenDaily reviews.

Posted: **Thu May 23, 2019 7:45 pm**

Cannes 2019 as a Simpsons montage

Posted: **Thu May 23, 2019 7:49 pm**

Finch wrote: Thu May 23, 2019 7:45 pm Cannes 2019 as a Simpsons montage

Some of these are great, and some I don’t get because who references modern Simpsons? The best one has the fewest likes, though!

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